Fresno State Beta Gamma

Through the vision (and insistence) of then-Mechanical Engineering junior Angela Cox and the leadership of Dean of Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering Michael G. Jenkins, the petition for forming a chapter of Pi Tau Sigma in the Lyles College of Engineering at California State University of California, Fresno was submitted in early 2010. The Fresno State Beta Gamma Chapter was formally installed on February 28, 2010, by National President Mun Young Choi and National Secretary-Treasurer Alex Moutsoglou. Fresno State Beta Gamma Chapter remains one of the more active honor societies within Lyles College of Engineering and on the CSU, Fresno campus. Our student services include free tutoring, leadership and volunteerism at MESA Saturday academies, scavenger hunts, and student-faculty academic and social events. We also foster a high level of student-faculty interaction within our department The highlight of each semester is the festive All-Honors banquet held at the end of the term to welcome new initiates of the various engineering honor societies and celebrate the end of the semester. This banquet is co-hosted by all the engineering honor societies within the Lyles College of Engineering, including Fresno State Beta Gamma Chapter of Pi Tau Sigma.
 

ANNUAL SUMMARY REPORTS
 

2019- 2020 Harrison Hobbs President

Fall 2019 showed our chapters versatility while planning events. We held a wide variety of events for our Initiates, from community service opportunities to socials, which allowed us to create a welcoming atmosphere for our chapter. For our social events, our chapter put on game nights, morning donut socials, study nights, movie nights, and our annual barbecue scavenger hunt at a local park. At this scavenger hunt, our initiates were tasked with finding different landmarks around our large local park. The first initiate to complete it is crowned the champion and gets bragging rights for the rest of the semester. It is at this event were we also distribute our keys which the initiates will polish before their initiation. For our community service events, our initiates were invited to participate in MESA days, a local stem competition geared towards teaching elementary and middle school students about Math, Engineering, and Science. Additionally, some of our initiates participated in other outside community service events to meet their service requirement.

            The Spring 2020 semester proved to be a challenging one for event planning and initiation requirements. Our chapter involvement was heavily affected by the onset of COVID-19 in our city and the closing of campus and transition to off-site learning. Initially, the officer team had started off the semester with some ideas of how to change our event layout and initiation invitation processes to get a larger turnaround on invites. First, the officer team pursued the idea of creating a handwritten letter printed and signed by the chair of our department. Once the letters were signed, the officers intended to hand deliver all the letters (about 50 in total) to the prospective students we planned to invite into the initiation process. It was approximately at this time when COVID-19 had made it to Fresno, and all our initiates and officers were asked to quarantine in their homes. Although we had managed to hand out most of the letters, it put a dent in our ability to communicate to our initiates and plan social events.

            Following the movement to online learning, the in person social events planned by our officer team were re-brainstormed, and new, online events were planned. Due to a lack of face to face contact, none of these events were attended. This ultimately led to us sending out a final interest email to all of our initiates, asking if anyone interested in initiating to email us. We received 4 replies from students interested in initiating, and with only a week left before initiation, we decided to change our requirements for initiation. The initiates were now required to submit a 1 paged typed essay about how the principles of Pi Tau Sigma apply to their prospective careers. Each of these students submitted their writeup, and we held our online initiation as planned.

2018-2019 Amanda Nuckols President

The Fall 2018 Pi Tau Sigma Beta Gamma activities included seventeen (17) different events! The academic year was kicked off in August with a Beta Gamma officer meeting where the semester schedule was planned out. The first events of the semester were held in September and included, the Lyle’s College of Engineering (LCOE) welcome back BBQ, initiate meetings, bowling and billiards night, and the LCOE Xcape room officer council meeting. The welcome back BBQ is an event held every fall by the engineering college and showcases all the engineering clubs, as well as, industry partner booths looking to hire engineering students. This event typically contains about fifty booths. The next round of events was held in October and included: day at the park, game night, LCOE officer council meeting, and movie night. Day at the park was co-hosted with SunDogs who provided pizza. Movie night was co-hosted with ASME who graciously allowed us to use their reserved on-campus room. November started out with a MESA day volunteering opportunity and the CCEDC competition. The remaining November activities included: LCOE officer council meeting, game night, study night, and the scavenger hunt meeting. December was filled with a MESA day, study night, PTS key polishing and plaque decorating night, broomball, Fall PTS initiation, and the Fall engineering honors society banquet. The Fall 2018 PTS initiation was held on December 13, 2018 and welcomed four student members and one honorary member to PTS.

The Spring 2019 activities included twenty (20) different events! Spring semester started off in January with a Beta Gamma officer meeting where the semester events were chosen, and a calendar was made available. The first member events started in February and included Super Bowl Party, LCOE officer council meeting, LCOE basketball night, PTS National Convention at Colorado State, movie night, and PTS initiate meetings. The super bowl party event was a bowling night hosted by us at the university’s bowling alley and was opened to anyone to attend. The LCOE basketball night was a night for all engineering students to attend and be recognized at the university basketball game, as well as, be entered to win prizes through the college. Our chapter was fortunate enough to send four members of the officer team to the national convention hosted at Colorado State and returned home to share their enriching time with fellow members and initiates. March included the professional networking night (hosted by the collaboration between SHPE, SASE, and SWE), MESA day, LCOE officer council meeting, the beach volleyball and BBQ day, Pi Day (co-hosted in the college by LCOE, Tau Beta Pi, and PTS who supplied and served pie), the Mechanical Engineering Awards banquet, LCOE battle of the engineers competition, scavenger hunt meeting, and study night. The events in April included: the CCEDC competition, soccer, MESA day, LCOE officer council meeting, and movie night with ice cream that was co-hosted with Tau Beta Pi. May wrapped up the semester with events such as broomball, PTS key polishing night, Spring PTS initiation, and the Spring engineering honors society banquet. The Spring 2019 PTS initiation was held on May 9, 2019 and welcomed five student members into PTS.